1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to gasifying carbon. More particularly this invention relates to catalytically gasifying carbon with steam. Still more particularly, this invention relates to catalytically gasifying carbon with steam in the presence of a catalytic metal such as nickel by forming a dispersion of such metal on graphite as particles below about 100 A in diameter and contacting said metal/graphite composite with steam at a temperature of at least about 800.degree. C. to gasify the carbon.
2. Background of the Disclosure
Metals of Groups VIB and VIII of the Periodic Table, such as Ni, Co, Mo and mixtures thereof, are known to be useful for catalytically gasifying carbon with steam and/or hydrogen. Those skilled in the art know that when depositing such metal on graphite or when forming a metal/graphite composite, the average particle size of the catalytic metal on a graphite support generally ranges from about 50 A to 1,000 A in diameter, with the vast majority of such catalysts having particles whose average diameters range from between about 50 A to 250 A and generally above about 100 A. Another problem associated with the use of these catalysts to gasify carbon under high temperature steam conditions is that the metal agglomerates on the surface of the graphite which reduces the surface area of the metal thereby resulting in a concomitant reduction of catalytic activity. Inasmuch as the catalytic activity of such metals is an inverse function of the square of the the square of the diameter of the particle size, smaller metal particles will result in much more rapid catalytic gasification of the carbon. Therefore, it would be a significant improvement to the art if one could gasify carbon with metal particles whose average size was less than about 100 A in diameter, preferably less than 50 A, more preferably below 25 A and under conditions such that the metal particles will not agglomerate.